A deaf child - not your right to choose
I’ve been thinking all day about the deaf couple who want the right to “choose” a deaf baby - not least because I’ve listened to them interviewed on Radio 4 and Radio 2.
To summarise, Tomato Lichy and his partner already have one deaf child, and hope for another via IVF. New legislation would mean they could not choose an embryo which had deaf genes, if a “non-deaf” embryo was available.
They say the act suggests that deaf people are not equal to hearing people; Mr Lichy almost militantly insists that his deafness is not a disability.
As the mother of a deaf child, I am sympathetic to his viewpoint (I would HATE anyone to consider my son inferior) but I cannot agree with what Mr Lichy would choose.
When we were offered a cochlear implant for Lockie, one of our first reservations was that accepting it would almost be like telling him that he was not “good enough” as he was. But there is a simple fact here - one which Mr Lichy refuses to accept - deafness IS the loss of a primary sense, and in that respect it cannot BUT be a disability. Much as we were afraid to put our child through surgery, we felt it was our duty to give him every option - hearing or deaf - for the fullest possible life.
He is now a hearing, speaking child, one who sings and listens to music, but all those are immaterial next to the fact that we did our duty as parents and gave him as many choices and chances as we were able. If he chooses to go to a deaf school, or a mainstream one, sign or talk - those are his choices, and fine by us. But by choosing a deaf child within a fairly determinedly insularly deaf family, they are restricting that of their putative child.
I am loath to criticise them - especially given the hammering they have taken on the radio today already - but I suspect that the couple’s real resistance comes from fear; fear that they will not be able to communicate or bond with a hearing child as they have with their child who is “like them”.
I understand this view - having a deaf child in our hearing family took some adjusting to too, and a fair bit of actual work. But I would argue that what they propose is just as discriminatory and short-sighted as it would be in reverse. Embracing deaf or hearing culture enriches both sides. For this reason, and despite the fact that I have no doubt that they are loving, caring parents, I hope they fail.
March 11th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Tomato Lichy, audism and eugenics….
Here’s something that deeply disturbs me.
Now, according to the Wikipedia page on eugenics:
Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler was infamous for eugenics programs which attempted to maintain a “pure” German race through a series of progra…
March 11th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
[...] A deaf child - not your right to choose [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
[...] Dr Steve Emery: Eugenics in UK: the debate suddenly takes off and hots up! Grumpy Old Deafies: Genetics: BBC Radio Transcript Links & BBC lack of impartiality All The Young Dudes: MEDIA WATCH: A Cacophonous Din of Ignorance & A Sane Voice [More Linx] All The Young Dudes: Media Watch: A Sane Voice Amidst A Cacophony of Ignorance All The Young Dudes: Media Watch: Hearing People Still Don’t Get It! No They Don’t! All The Young Dudes: Media Watch: Hearing People Don’t Get It! Or Do They? Nothing To Do With Arbroath: This couple want a deaf child. Should we try to stop them? JivinJehoshaphat: Life Links 3/10/08 Secondhand Smoke: At the Crossroads of Eugenics and Solipsism: Engineering a Culture of Death Dr Rant: Deafness is a disablity, fuckwit bioethics.com: This couple want a deaf child. Should we try to stop them? Earthquake Cove: Should parents be able to choose a deaf baby? The Human Future: Wanted Another deaf child The Human Future: Artificial Sperm to be Allowed for Babymaking 19th Floor: Not Worthy Steve Shickles: This couple want a deaf child. Should we try to stop them? Futurismic: Ethics and embryology - should deaf parents be allowed to choose a deaf child? Curiouser and Curiouser: Selecting for deaf children seems crazy to me Rot Watch: Deaf Babies Peter Bracken: Is deafness a disability? Bionic Ear: UK IVF Couple Wants Deaf Child Mishka Zena: Eugenics Too Close To Home: Tomato Lichy, U.K. Activist Mishka Zena: Should Deaf Parents Have a Deaf Child? The Not-Quite-So-Friendly Humanist: Reverse Eugenics JoJo Moyes: A deaf child - not your right to choose Mike Gulliver’s Blog: Response to John Humphries Unenlightened Commentary: Designing Disability Tory Radio: blind to common sense Disability Nation: Controversy in the UK Leave a Reply [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
[...] My wife has written rather more eloquently than I on this matter already on her blog: I am loath to criticise them - especially given the hammering they have taken on the radio today already - but I suspect that the couple’s real resistance comes from fear; fear that they will not be able to communicate or bond with a hearing child as they have with their child who is “like them”. [...]
March 25th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
It’s a strange one this. I’m a signer - by choice rather than necessity. I came into it when I was working as an actress in a signed production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and the interpreter was a darn sight more interesting then we were.
It’s such a beautiful language.
I now have many deaf friends and am aware many of them believe, quite passionately, they are part of a minority language group and not disabled. I think it helps to remember how very recently deaf people endured terrible prejudice and horrific ‘treatments’. Not so surprising they feel the need to defend their place in the world.
If it were me, I think I’d want, as near as possible, the same proportion of deaf-gene embryo’s inserted as occurred naturally.
And, for what it’s worth, I’d have gone the cochlear implant route if one of my children had been deaf. Although I’ve heard the arguments against I can’t see the moral difference between an implant and a hearing aid.
Perhaps what’s important is that we don’t legislate for any minority group without actually listening to what that group has to say.